Public awareness towards major issues such as pollution, waste disposal, and undue squandering of trees has increased drastically over the last few years. As a result, measures such as recycling have become increasingly popular and are now even institutionalized in some areas.
Many offices now ask their employees to segregate their waste and to dispose of used paper in recycling bins. Typically some offices have a central recycling bin ofter furnished by the paper recycling companies in which employees are encouraged to dump their recyclable paper. However, this type of practice requires that the employee leave his desk and transport the recyclable paper to the appropriate bin.
To circumvent this problem, the present invention proposes an individual compartmented waste basket which allows the user to segregate recyclable paper from other type of trash at his desk. Since the waste basket is particularly adapted to be used underneath office desks, the compartments are located one on top of the other in order to save on limited horizontal space. The waste basket comprises a lower compartment specifically adapted to receive recyclable paper and a top compartment adapted to receive conventional trash.
A search amongst previous patents has revealed a number of compartmented refuse containers having superposed compartments with the lower compartment specifically adapted to receive paper.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,653 discloses a combination trash receptacle for storing newspapers and other trash separately which includes a lower newspaper receptacle formed of a receptacle base having a floor and upwardly extending walls for receipt of the newspaper and positioned thereupon an upper trash receptacle having a floor therein and upwardly extending walls dimensioned so as to nest upon the lower newspaper receptacle. A newspaper slot is positioned within one of the walls of the upper trash receptacle to permit passage of newspapers into the lower newspaper receptacle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,419 discloses another type of trash receptacle particularly adapted to receive paper in its lower compartment and having a top opening. The container has at least one pair of apertures in a side wall thereof, through one of which a divider panel is removably inserted to form a false bottom for the relatively top portion of the container. The other aperture serves as an entry port for loading one type of refuse in the relatively bottom portion of the container. The top portion is loaded with a second type, meanwhile, through the top opening; and when the container is to be emptied, the integrity of each type is preserved by unloading the top portion first and then removing the panel to expose the bottom portion of the container to the top opening.
However, both structures described in the above mentioned patents present the same major drawbacks. The first of these drawbacks is that the top receptacle must be removed or emptied prior to emptying the lowermost receptacle. This limitation is clearly indicated at line 32 of the second column of the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,653 and at line 63 of the first column of U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,419.
The second major drawback inherent to the structures described in these patents is that they do not provide a stacking chute adapted to direct the paper being dropped to the lower compartment in an appropriate stacking position. U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,653 provides a slot 24 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,419 an aperture 14 which leads directly to the lower receptacle. With the present invention, a chute is provided in order to guide the paper during its fall to a proper stacking relationship thus minimizing the risk of the paper folding during its fall.